Olive harvest season threatened by the Wall, military restrictions

Hundreds of Palestinian farmers in the Palestinian Plaines areas, in West Bank's Jordan Valley region, are still deprived from reaching their farmlands, and olive orchards, since their lands are near or behind the Annexation Wall, an issue which threatens to cause the loss of the entire olive harvest season.

Archive Photo

Resident “Abu Hamid” said that he owns ten Dunams mainly planted with Olive trees but he cannot reach his orchards unless he receives a special permit from the Israeli military headquarters in the area, which is a difficult issue that ends with rejections in most cases.

Abu Hamid added that since the construction of the Annexation Wall, he and all other farmers, became unable to plant their lands or harvest them.

“We depend on farming, agriculture, as our only source of livelihood, but the occupation is not allowing us to reach our lands”, he stated, “We applied for permits to enter our own lands, but we are still waiting, nothing is happening”.

The Palestinian Plaines area is under strict military measures and siege, the army also annexed huge areas of agricultural lands for settlement construction and for the construction of the Annexation Wall. The remaining lands are located in areas that are close to the Wall and the farmers are not allowed to enter them.

Resident Jamil Salah said that soldiers are always present in the area, and do not allow the residents to enter their lands or even get close to them.

“They annexed our lands, our only sources of livelihood” Salah said, “and now they aren’t allowing us to enter or even get close to what is left of our orchards”.

Resident Ahmad Bilal said that the farmers are facing daily attacks by the soldiers, and that for a whole month he was allowed into his land only two or three times since it is close to the Wall.

In one incident, Bilal was attacked clubbed by the soldiers after he insisted to enter his land.

Resident Wahbi Zeidan said that he was attacked several times and was violently beaten by the soldiers, he also detained him several times.

“This is my land, they want to deprive me from it forever”, Zeidan said, “this is very serious, they want us to abandon our lands, but this will never happen, these are our lands which we inherited from our forefathers”.

Another resident identified as Othman Khairy, said that the army wants the farmers to lose the olive picking season, especially since it is the only remaining source of livelihood for most of the residents in that area.

Translared by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC

Archive Photo